I just have to write this entry because for some time now, it seems, that time has been playing its tricks on me. From the morning when I drag my sleepy corpse into the shower, get into a shuttle to haul my body to Makati where I have to race with time along with other walking corpses and press my finger onto the biometrics to record my attendance on the machine: “toot. Thank you”. (Oh good, I’m not late) To the end of the day when I repeat this ritual: “toot. Thank You.” (Oh great, it’s already late). Everything seems to be about TIME.
It does not even occur to me that I have been hired over six months ago; time flies so fast. And I always seem to be running out of TIME! Now more than ever, I realize the truth in the old idiom: TIME IS GOLD. Of course, we had more luxury in college when we were EXPERT crammers and lived on the edge of things. Now, however, my weeks seem to have compressed themselves into days; blink and you’ll miss yesterday.
While contemplating in the shuttle on my way to Makati worrying whether or not I’ll be late, I managed to come up with a THEORY OF TIME that will destroy the very constitutions of human life and social order. OR, I was just formulating a grand excuse for my possible tardiness.
Anyway.
THEORY #1: TIME DOES NOT EXIST!!!
Isn’t TIME just a man-made concept? Is there really TIME? Does it exist? You see, technically speaking, time is your digital clock. The calendar. The ticking seconds on the wall clock. The natural cycles of the stars and seasons. It’s something linear and recorded. If it were not for the record and human memory, the concept of time wouldn’t exist.
THUS:
Boss: Mr. Limos, you’re late!!!
Me: No, I am not. The relativity of time permits my arrival at this so called “hour”, and the concept of time, earliness or lateness rests on the illusion that time actually exists. Therefore, I am NOT late.
THEORY #2: PRESENT TIME IS A CURTAIN.
And reality is the point where the curtain meets consciousness. Or rather, collective consciousness is the curtain at which reality stands. Imagine a conveyor belt passing though the X-ray machine. The point at which a thing is inside the X-ray area, that is “reality” or consciousness. Whatever is beyond that area is either “past” or “future”, but still exists collectively.
THUS:
Boss: Mr. Limos, you’re late!!!
Me: No, I am not late. We are just not together in the same collective consciousness in which reality takes place. It depends on the level and extent of our consciousness, and sad to say, I might have expanded mine beyond the reach of yours. THEREFORE, I am NOT late. I am just a little in the future.
THEORY #3: TIME TRAVEL IS IMPOSSIBLE
(In the sense of revisiting the past or jumping to the future). Time travel is impossible only because of the impossibility of having two sets of consciousness. You can’t have two consciousness. Our consciousness, being limited to mere specks, cannot be stretched outside the boundaries of its space (the X-ray area in the conveyor belt). God, who has unlimited consciousness (omniscience) is able to stretch his consciousness beyond the limits of the “X-ray area” and out through the whole conveyor belt, that is why He is in the past and in the future. THEREFORE, I cannot travel back in time to scan my finger in the biometrics and not be late because hypothetically doing so would negate the law of single consciousness.
THUS:
Boss: Mr. Limos, you’re late!!!
Me: No. This is actually the second time I arrived today. The present time is no longer valid.
Then, poof! I went Back to myself inside the shuttle. I rushed through a sea of other sleep-deprived corpses as early as 8:00 am along Ayala all doing the fast walk in hope of catching that biometric machine. I rode a jeep to City Hall, ran to my office near the City Hall, and slammed my index finger on the Biometric Scanner: “TOOT! THANK YOU.” It was 8:30 am. Just made it. Just in time.
HA. One way or another, we all have to stoop down to that machine.
Pitasyo 